Fine by Pauline Deltour

The designer adds Parisian sophistication to miniature technology for a range of handbag-friendly accessories

As personal and domestic technology has become commonplace, there’s been a move away from the classic high-tech aesthetic of black, chrome and flashing lights. Today, objects come in comfortable shapes and tactile materials that fit more discreetly into our lives – from the Bouroullecs’ Serif TV for Samsung to wooden, mid-century-style furniture with concealed charging points and speakers.

French designer Pauline Deltour’s Fine range of aluminium, portable objects for Lexon is an elegant addition to this oeuvre. The collection was launched last year with a mobile power source, a Bluetooth speaker you twist like a lipstick to adjust the volume, a USB keyring and a card holder/mirror. This year, she has added a radio, torch and alarm clock, all of which incorporate a twisting mechanism, reducing the need for buttons and screens.

A metal antennae fits around the top edge of the Fine Radio

The compact, lightweight items are designed to slip into a handbag. ‘I have a passion for boxes: to store, to hide and take your life with you,’ Deltour says. In designing the collection, she took inspiration from minaudières –small, evening bag-like boxes designed by French fashion houses such as Van Cleef & Arpels and Cartier that had compartments to efficiently organise your personal items. ‘It’s amazing what they could hold in such small handbags.

They were a mine of ingenuity and technical mastery, with an extreme sense of detail combining sophistication and minimum clutter.’ Such accessories epitomise early 20th-century Parisian chic and Deltour’s range, with its muted colours and classic forms, can be seen as the modern equivalent – perfectly suited to lifestyles in which work and leisure blur into one.

Words

Debika Ray

Above: The Fine Bluetooth Speaker is controlled by twisting the grooved casing